2. Journey
The travel to the port began quietly. The kids were distracted by the activities on offer. Ben was reading up on dinosaurs and how they aren't really dead and will take over, Jake was texting and listening to his iPod and Karen had borrowed Pete's phone and was keeping up with the latest developments in the debates on the BBC News website. About an hour into the journey, however, the kids were growing bored and began playing a game of 'who can scream the loudest?' However, after a few goes, Pete and Sue realised that Ben was quieting down.
"I feel sick, Mum!" He cried.
"Do you need us to pull over?" Sue enquired, worried. Ben had had a lot of chocolate throughout the day
"Nah, I think I'm ok," Ben replied.
Unfortunately, not long after that there was the all-too-familiar belch/cough/retching – 'puke is imminent' noise that Pete knew too well. He shouted at Sue to pull over quickly, but it was too late – Ben had projectile vomited all over the windscreen and over the dashboard. Luckily for Pete and Sue it was Ben's turn to sit in the middle seat, so they escaped with only a few drips of splash-back on their clothes rather than the full force that one of them might have had had Ben been on a window seat. Sue had by now pulled over, but before they could get out, Ben threw up again, this time all over the gearstick and handbrake.
"Sorry Mum, sorry Dad" Ben said, almost tearfully
"It's OK, Ben. It's not that bad." Sue replied, tending to Ben whilst Karen scrambled disgusted out the car and Jake helped Pete to clean up.
"Mummy will we be going to miss the boat?" Karen asked, "Because daddy said I could watch the government debates on his laptop when we get to the cabin. I've had a look on the internet on daddy's phone but it's not as good as seeing it on a TV or computer"
"No, dear, we'll be fine. Once daddy and Jake have finished cleaning and Ben feels OK we're going to get straight back to the journey, but we will have to get a late dinner on the boat now – can you hang on till then? We have packed some salt & vinegar crisps and a few bottles of water in the glove box if you need some food"
"Yes mummy, okay. I think Ben's feeling better don't you?" Karen replied, pointing behind her mother. Sue looked over to see Ben re-enacting another Star Wars scene with a stick and a piece of road kill he'd found on the hard shoulder. 'Yes', thought Sue, 'that boy is definitely feeling better. Oh Jesus, is that a squirrel he's playing with?'
A few minutes later, the car was cleaned, although a little smelly still, so the family continued on the journey with the windows open. After all the delays and traffic queues – the longest of which was just two miles outside of Southampton, it was about 9.45 when they finally joined the increasingly long line of cars waiting to go to the car park. Sue quickly popped out to see if any of the workers knew when they would get to park the car as her children were beginning to get restless – she was told it should only be about ten minutes but by now it'd maybe be a bit longer because they'd come at a peak time for parking up. When they'd eventually got into the car park Pete asked around if they could get the car cleaned. The man on the ticket booth said that usually it was not a service that they provided but in their case – there was still some puke stuck to the heater and in the CD drive – he was sure they could get one of the local trades in to do it. Pete thanked the man and left him with the spare set of keys. The family boarded the boat and felt that their holiday had now properly begun. Karen and Ben were overly impressed with the vast scale of the boat and the amount of amenities it came with. Jake was less impressed, but still looked happy when he wasn't texting